search for: querytags

According to http://www.rpm.org/api/4.4.2.2/specfile.html a Version: tag can contain a hyphen, as the tarball for the source I am compiling is named 2.3-pre4 etc. When I try to build it I get an error about the illegal char? Anyone know about the discrepancy between the docs and RHEL's rpmbuild? Without recreating a new tarball and bungling the name how does one gracefully handle this?

I've been thinking about ways to proceed if I need to set up 5 machines with basically identical software but somewhat variable hardware. A simple approach would be to just set up my golden system and clone the disk, but the hardware differences would probably cause problems. One approach that appeals to me is to install minimal centos on the first system, add a few rpms after installation,